John McCain's presidential campaign blasted The New York
Times for an "unprecedented attack" on his wife, as both
Republican and Democratic teams exchanged barbs over voter fraud
allegations ahead of the November 4 election.

The Times's profile of Cindy McCain delves into the
background of the millionaire beer heiress, married to the
Republican Arizona senator for more than 30 years.

Senator McCain's campaign fired back immediately, describing the
profile as "gutter journalism at its worst" and a "barrage of petty
and personal attacks".

The article noted the candidate's spouse had a role in the
Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal, she "endured several
miscarriages alone" while her husband worked in Washington and she
was "caught stealing drugs from her non-profit organisation to feed
her addiction to painkillers".

The article is a "black mark on the record of a paper that was
once widely respected, but is now little more than a propaganda
organ for the Democratic party", Senator McCain's campaign
said.

"The New York Times has stooped lower than this campaign
ever imagined possible in an attempt to discredit a woman whose
only apparent sin is being married to the man that would oppose
that paper's preferred candidate, [Democrat] Barack Obama."

Mrs McCain, 54, is the chairwoman of Hensley & Company,
Arizona's foremost beer distribution company worth an estimated
tens of millions of dollars.

In a confession to Newsweek magazine she admitted drug
use in the wake of the Keating scandal that rocked Washington in
the late 1980s, in which she was the sole Senate spouse to be
implicated.

"The pills made me feel euphoric and free," she wrote in an
essay.

Mrs McCain has been drafted into her husband's campaign in
recent weeks and was due to tour Pennsylvania by bus this weekend
in a bid to stem Senator McCain's slide in the polls against his
Democratic rival.

The Obama campaign's top lawyer, Bob Bauer, accused Republicans
on Saturday of recklessly "plotting" to suppress legitimate votes
and to "sow confusion and harass voters and complicate the process
for millions of Americans".

An estimated 9 million new voters have registered for the hotly
contested presidential election, and the Obama camp says Democratic
registrations are outpacing Republican ones by four to one.

The McCain campaign contends that an untold number of those
registration forms are false and warned that illegally cast ballots
could alter the results of the election and undermine the public's
faith in democracy.

Republicans have launched a slew of lawsuits aimed at preventing
false ballots from being cast, the most high-profile an attempt to
challenge as many as 200,000 of the more than 600,000 new
registrations submitted in the battleground state of Ohio.

That challenge was blocked by a Supreme Court ruling on
Saturday.

Republicans cited investigations into whether liberal-leaning
community organisation ACORN had submitted false voter
registrations as proof of "rampant" and widespread fraud, which
Senator McCain said on Wednesday could be "destroying the fabric of
democracy".

The McCain campaign dismissed Mr Bauer's accusations as an
"absurd" attempt to "criminalise political discourse".

"In case Senator Obama's lawyer did not notice, we are in the
midst of a political campaign, not a coronation, and the alleged
criminal activity he calls 'recent partisan Republican activities'
are what the rest of us call campaign speeches and debates,"
spokesman Ben Porritt said.

Gallup's latest national tracking poll of registered voters had
Senator Obama at 50 per cent to 43 per cent for Senator McCain.

Polls of battleground states by CNN and Time magazine
on Wednesday showed Senator Obama up five points among registered
voters in Colorado, by eight in Florida, by three in Missouri and
by a yawning 10 points in Virginia.

Senator Obama is set to address a rally in St Louis, Missouri,
on Saturday afternoon, while Senator McCain has events scheduled in
North Carolina and Virginia.

1224351099541-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/mccain-fury-at-attack-on-wife/2008/10/20/1224351099541.htmlsmh.com.auAFP2008-10-20McCain fury at attack on wifeUSFederalElection2008http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/both-parties-ducking-muslim-issue/2008/10/21/1224351253269.htmlBoth parties ducking Muslim issuetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/powell-deals-a-blow-to-mccain/2008/10/20/1224351155296.htmlPowell deals a blow to McCaintext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/decision-to-break-ranks-was-painful/2008/10/20/1224351150093.htmlDecision to break ranks was 'painful'text/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/days-to-go-obama-raises-216m-in-a-month/2008/10/20/1224351133442.htmlDays to go: Obama raises $216m in a monthtext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/powell-backs-obama/2008/10/20/1224351089582.htmlPowell backs Obamatext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/palin-v-palin/2008/10/20/1224351094923.htmlPalin v Palintext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/republicans-see-red-as-their-states-turn-blue/2008/10/19/1224351057102.htmlRepublicans see red as their states turn bluetext/html-documenthttp://blogs.smh.com.au/whitehouse08/archives/2008/10/lets_win_one_for_the_gipper.htmlLet's win one for the Gippertext/html-internal